Saturday, April 02, 2011
So, last week I went with the college's Art Department to the Los Angeles area to do artsy stuff. A lot of the pictures I have already posted on my other blog, so for the better looking ones, you should go there. Also, this is not exactly in chronological order. And I've run out of storage space (how did that not happen before now?), so a lot of things are being cut out, and I guess I'm not uploading any pictures onto my blog for a while? This will be remedied before I leave the country.
Thursday when we reached California, our first (real) stop was the
Huntington. Stephanie and I spent most of the time there in the botanical gardens, and a minimal amount of time in the art galleries. Because apparently I don't like art as much as I thought I did. Or I just prefer being outside with the flowers.
This was the Chinese garden. The Japanese one was mostly bonsai trees, which were cool, but... I was less inclined to photograph them.
The guy who chopped off Medusa's head. Sorry, I'm not well versed in my mythology and I have no idea what his name is, nor do I really feel the need to Google it right now.
Friday night we went to Disneyland! Kaiyo was a dear and signed Steph and me in. It was, of course, busy (being Friday and Spring Break season), but it was still fun.
Also awesome, when they roped off the castle (for the fireworks) and I was able to snap a couple of pictures without hordes of other people being in it! Bonus, it wasn't so dark that my camera felt like it needed a tripod yet.
I don't know how many times I've been past Pooh Corner or been on the ride, but this was the first time I noticed sign for Pooh Stix bridge. Steph was the one that pointed it out to me.
Earlier Friday we went to the Getty Villa. There was this fountain that had faces like that one
on Roman Holiday (you know, where Audry Hepburn puts her hand in the mouth?) So, of course, we felt like we had to do the same. Um. There's a picture of Steph, too, but it is either on her camera or my other camera, of which I have not yet downloaded any of the pictures. Not that that really matters at this point.
Even more earlier on Friday we stopped at Redondo Pier, which, in my opinion, is really lame. Especially since ALL THE STORES WERE CLOSED, the ocean was cold (and stinky), and the beach was not that clean. Anyway, this little figurine was in the window of one of the shops, and I thought it was kind of endearing (look at it! It's Titanic!). Not that I would have purchased it, but it was still cute in it's own gruesome way.
There were, however, these two pigeons that were kind of entertaining. The one on the left is missing a foot, and the one on the right was feeding it. And then decided to climb on the back of pigeon on the left for about 2 seconds before getting back down. That was...awkward, and we left them alone after that.
Then there was the small child that was feeding all the seagulls with his mom. Precious.
Also, homeless people sleeping under the pier in sleeping bags. That was a little eerie, and I did not altogether approve.
At the LACMA, there was a Japanese exhibit (among many others), and I fell in love with this screen. I want one!
They also had this exhibit on fashion. Look at this amazing dress.
Also, while we were looking at the fashion exhibit, we ran into this lady. She was very friendly and echoed my sentiments of the bustles and various other fashion implements: "torture implements."
This is the other dress I loved.
Saturday we went to the LA LDS Temple. Most of the group went to the Visitor's Center, but I favored walking around the grounds more. I know it is hard to see in this picture, but that big tree in the background? I loved it. I want one. It was gnarly (literally) and reminded me of a giant bonsai.
Sunday we stopped at Forest Lawn before heading back to Utah. Cameras aren't allowed in any of the buildings, so I only got a few pictures outside.
Labels: Art, cemeteries, Disney, Fashion, Photography, School, travel
Friday, September 25, 2009
I have a doctor's appointment pretty soon, so there is not going to be a whole lot of description here. But the same day we went to the cemetery in Jamestown, we hit up the one in Randolph, too, which houses the earthly remains of some of my deceased relatives. (On a side-note, this is posting exactly 1 month after the event. Oops. I lose.)
We are a somewhat patriotic family. Clearly.
Willie Lee* died January 11, 1861 at the age of 6 years, 5 months, and 22 days (very specific). His family's plots are gated off from everyone else's.
While I am not very fond of the potted plant that was in the way no matter what angle I tried to shoot the picture at, I am rather fond of the goggy.
Count the legs on this spider. Enlarge the picture if you have to. Tell me if you find all 8. Legs, I mean.
*Not a relative.
Next up (which we don't actually know when that will come around) is Watkin's Glenn. A place of beauty, lots of water, and another cemetery!
And now, off to the doctor. It's a new one**, so wish me luck!
**A moment of silence, please, as we remember the days gone by where I was still seen by a pediatrician. Those days which are no more.
Labels: cemeteries, Family, travel
Thursday, September 17, 2009
So remember those really fun times where I went to NY to visit my grandparents? I bet you all thought I wasn't going to finish blogging about that. If so, you have another think coming! Because, here I am. Blogging about my vacation! Yea!
I have a great and abiding love for cemeteries. I do not know why; I guess it's just a part of my morbid personality (as My K once said, "Aww. You're morbid!" I imagine her saying it in one of those voices where an endearing trait is being discussed). Anyway, in our journeying around that part of the state that we call the South West part, we visited 3 cemeteries. One of them was on accident and I HAD NO IDEA WE WERE GOING TO FIND IT(!!!) until it was suddenly just THERE in front of me. I think my exact words were, "Oh, look! A Cemetery! Let's go!" I could be off a little bit, though.
This post, though, because the internets is SO SLOW and I'm tired of waiting for pictures to upload, will only be the Jamestown Cemetery. A place of awesomeness and, also, the now final resting place of Miss Lucille Ball.
Apparently tourists come to look for her grave, so they don't want anyone to miss it. Or something like that, anyway.
Also, there were like a million family crypts! I kind of want one. Like a lot. Something about being laid to rest in a mausoleum is terribly romantic to me and I'm totes in love with the idea. I need to marry someone rich just so I can die and have my own tomb. You know, like these ones. They are SO COOL!
The Jamestown Cemetery was also cool because of this tree. Coolest. Tree. Ever. Just sayin'.
You may or may not need to view it full-size to see why the tree is so awesome. Go ahead, click. I'll wait....
Back? Ok, good. Moving on.
And here is the main reason I wanted to go to this cemetery: The Lady in Glass.
Information I found elsewhere about the Lady in Glass: "The Lady in Glass, Grace Galloway (1871[2]-1898) was an accomplished opera singer who passed away from Tuberculosis at the age of 26 or 27. Her untimely death was a shock to her family, especially her father, who commissioned and built the most well-known monument in Lake View Cemetery."
Here is another picture for you where you can see the statue a bit better.
Apparently at one point in time she used to be wearing a REAL wedding dress, but now she is not. Still cool, though.
Something to be said for OLD cemeteries: they have character! Utah cemeteries are none of them old enough. I guess they have
some character, those cemeteries here in the "younger" states, but the ones in Utah, at least, lack cool statues like these ones:
The Jamestown (or Lake View, I guess?) Cemetery is also the final resting place of James Prendergast, founder of Jamestown, NY. His monument was GINORMOUS and totes impossible to miss. Also kind of hard to take pictures of with my not wide-angled lens because it was SO STINKIN' TALL. But I managed.
And, OK. Last picture, but I couldn't help taking it. Isn't this just the most perfect spider web you have ever seen? It was even more perfect right before I took the picture, but then a fly or a mosquito or some other sort of icky bug landed in the web, and People, I saw that Spider eat the Bug and it didn't even gross me out! Also, it happened quick as near-lightning. That was one quick spider. I told Dad to find it another bug to eat so I could watch it devour some more food, but he did not comply. Poor Spider.
Anywhos, I'll try to get the rest of this vacation blogged soon, but I'm headed back to Happy Valley for the weekend on Friday, and who knows if I'll feel like blogging tomorrow!
Labels: cemeteries, travel
